'Mr Camaro' On The Epic ZL1 V8s and Right‑Hand‑Drive...

We tracked him down just as he was commandeering two police officers for a picture with the car: “I just got a couple of bobbies for a photo with the car. So awesome!” he said when we met him. Informal introductions out of the way, onwards with our interview…

Gen’ 6: Europe’s Camaro?

"We are trying to appease the world market,” says Al. “We want to make sure we give people something that meets their expectations. The Camaro is a car of passion, one you want to buy, you don’t have to buy. We have spent a lot of time with the sixth-gen' car touring Italy, France and spending a lot of time in the car in Germany on the Nurburgring and the Autobahns.”

How much of a presence in the UK?

"After the Geneva Motorshow we had an influx of orders of a few hundred, and they’re already on ships or here already, so we have a presence and we expect that to grow

The age-old question: any chance of right-hand drive?

“That’s an investment that really needs to be studied… at the moment we don’t have plans to bring one but we’re always studying the opportunity to do that. The architecture the car uses does have right-hand drive in it”.

The Mustang’s found a UK market…

"We know our competitors have got right-hand drives coming over here, and are watching that. Are their sales really a success for them? Or a one-year wonder?”

Tell us about the new ZL1.

"We’re gonna be announcing some numbers over the summer, and I think it’s gonna be staggering for a lot of people what this car is capable of.

"We just announced our horsepower in the last couple of days. We wait as long as possible just in case there are any last tweaks we can do to get one more horsepower out of it”.

We’d wager the LT4’s 650bhp final figure will do just fine, being 70bhp up on the old LSA which with the sixth-generation car’s 100kg less weight (now it weighs 1770kg) means this is undoubtedly the fastest road going Camaro ever made.

The old car could crack 62 in just over four seconds so the new ZL1’s performance is clearly going to be spectacular. On its runs at FoS in the First Glance category the car certainly got nice and smokey and looked properly angry on its way up the hill.

Does the big-capacity V8 have a future?

"We’re gonna push to keep the V8 as long as we can. Personally I’ll fight for V8s all day long… this is my second generation as the chief and I like to think that while I have the keys to the store, V8s will live on”.

It’s reassuring to have such an enthusiast at the helm steering the future of one of the great iconic muscle car manufacturers.

What does the man behind the Camaro think of FoS?

“The Festival of Speed is the pinnacle of car enthusiasm, and we’re honoured to be here. It’s great to be able to celebrate our best Camaro ever at the best car festival ever”.

We’re inclined to agree, Al.

Photography by Tom Shaxson